Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #40 for the week May 6th - May 12th, 2007. In this issue we cover the long awaited stable release of Ubuntu Studio, the new Ubuntu Central American LoCo Team, the growing media coverage on Ubuntu (both press and blogs), and we highlight the amazing work done by the MOTU Team.

In This Issue

General Community News

Ubuntu Studio Released

A stable version of Ubuntu Studio was released to heavy anticipation on May 10th. Ubuntu Studio is an unofficial derivative of Ubuntu which is heavily geared to multimedia manipulation: video editing, audio production, image manipulation and more. Some features include a low latency kernel for audio work, a modified installer, and Ardour 2. Support is also available in the IRC channel #ubuntustudio and in the Ubuntu Forums. http://ubuntustudio.org/

LoCo News

The Arizona Team, "The Hottest LoCo on Earth," started up a month ago and already has 30 members. The LoCo has started a Server Team to help teach and train users who are interested in Linux server technologies. The Server Team is already working with and has gotten a donated server from the DeVry Linux Users Group in Phoenix, Arizona. In order to keep their members informed, the Arizona LoCo also puts out its own newsletter and has published three issues so far. Find out more information about the LoCo at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam

An Ubuntu Central American Team has been created with the participation of five teams: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Panama and Belize will be added once they register their teams. The Nicaragua Team will mentor the other teams, in order to organize them, get them active, and approved before the end of the year. A joint project is already being planned: the two-day Central American Ubuntu Festival in Managua, Nicaragua for the release of Gutsy. The event will have conferences, installfests, booths, exhibitions, contests, and much more. Read more at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/loco-contacts/2007-May/001347.html

In The Press

Jason Brooks, at eWeek, thinks Linux is getting closer to fixing bug #1. Jason thinks Ubuntu's best features are "its excellent software management tools, its well-organized community and its large catalog of ready-to-install free software applications." As more people use Linux applications, they will find it easier to install and update compared to Windows. The spruced up implementation of the NetworkManager gets high praise as it was deemed "essential" in Blueprints for 7.04. Read the full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2126937,00.asp

The BBC covers the new Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project with Intel. Intel CEO Paul Otellini has shown off a device using a prototype of the Ubuntu mobile platform. Devices powered by Intel's new low-energy chips will be much smaller than conventional processors and consume only 10% of the power. The Ubuntu platform aims to maximize energy efficiency while "offering a graphical interface designed specifically for the small screen." More details are expected after the Ubuntu Developer Summit. Read the full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6634195.stm

Jo Best, at Business Week, also covers the Ubuntu and Intel parternship. Ubuntu CTO Matt Zimmerman says "It is clear that new types of device - small, handheld, graphical tablets which are internet-enabled - are going to change the way we communicate and collaborate. These devices place new demands on open source software and require innovative graphical interfaces, improved power management and better responsiveness." Linux is expected to run on 200 million mobile devices by 2012. Read the full article: http://www.businessweek.com/print/globalbiz/content/may2007/gb20070509_681142.htm

VMWare has released Workstation 6 which supports paraviritualization with paravirt-ops. Paravirt-ops "allows users to run the same Linux kernel in paravirtualized mode on a hypervisor as well as on native hardware" meaning companies have to maintain fewer Linux kernels, will be able to save money, and simplify development. Ubuntu 7.04 is the first distribution to support paravirt-ops. Jane Sibler, director of operations at Canonical, says "VMware and the Ubuntu community have worked closely together to ensure that Linux customers can use a single operating system for both virtual and physical environments as well as receive optimal performance and an excellent out-of-box experience in both environments." Read the full article: http://www.sys-con.com/read/373486.htm

Rodney Gedda, at InfoWorld Nederland, discusses Mooter Media's move to Ubuntu when implementing a platform "that would scale from 100,000 transactions a day in 2005 to a projected 100 million a day in 2007 and beyond." Mooter CIO Mark Hetherington's design required the platform to be massively scalable and redundant and support new releases quickly without interruptions. Mark says "Our platform of choice was Linux for development reasons and our distribution of choice, Ubuntu, gave us a much more flexible way of managing software in an automated manner. The Debian packages allow you to deploy far more automatically whereas deploying to Red Hat is a pain in the bum." Read the full article: http://www.infoworld.nl/idgns/bericht.phtml?id=002570DE00740E18002572D7000AE210

Will Smith, at Maximum PC, goes through the process of installing Ubuntu 7.04. Will says with Ubuntu "you can boot off the CD to determine whether or not your rig will work with the OS before you make a single change to the hard drive. You can tell if you’re going to have a problem before you hose your system, which is always a good thing." He goes on to describe how to find and install applications and restricted drivers using Synaptic. Will comments "it is actually safe to run an Ubuntu install without any kind of malware-fighting utilities running in the background." Google and the Ubuntu forums are mentioned as good places to find help for any technical problems. Read the full article: http://www.maximumpc.com/linux

In The Blogosphere

Jessamyn Charity West, a librarian at Calef Library, in Washington, Vermont, created a video of installing Ubuntu on donated computers. Three computers came with no legal licenses for Windows, so Jessamyn burned an ISO of Ubuntu and proceeded to overwrite Windows. She comments how Ubuntu is instantly useful since it comes with OpenOffice and Gaim pre-installed. See the video at http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, at ZDNet, is excited with the idea of Ubuntu on mobile devices. He thinks current embedded platforms are awful and Ubuntu can help change this and it would be good exposure for Linux as a whole. Adrian says "I can tell you now that I'm looking forward to seeing it in action! This release of Ubuntu could change how we interact with out mobile devices forever." Read more at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=396

Steve Ross, at FON, blogs about installing Ubuntu 7.04. He goes through the default installation, automatically partitioning his drive and keeping Windows. Ubuntu was able to import most of his pictures, music, and documents from Windows and Steve notes that everything "just worked." Next, he connects a back up hard drive, Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse, and a card reader to the computer and everything works seamlessly. Steve goes on to say "I know this sounds like an advertisement for Ubuntu, I guess it is." Read more at http://blog.fon.com/en/archive/technology/adios-microsoft.html and http://blog.fon.com/en/archive/technology/ubuntu-day-two.html

Pablonius Monk, at Pablo's Point, talks about reviving an either old Sony Vaio desktop with Ubuntu. Initially the computer had Windows 98SE and was upgraded to XP in 2002. Performance degraded severely and Pablonious started looking for alternatives. He took the plunge with Ubuntu and comments "to say I've gotten my use out of that computer is an understatement. Ubuntu really helped me stretch it out." Read more at http://pablospoint.blogspot.com/2007/05/dellighted-about-ubuntu.html

Alex, on his Gentoo blog, writes about how Ubuntu is helping out Linux. He says that Ubuntu is made with usability in mind, "has a commercial support of involved vendor", is about community, has a successful business model, and listens to its users. Alex thinks that Ubuntu will succeed in areas that Red Hat has failed, and Ubuntu will be more careful with its community compared to Novell. Read more at http://blog-of-gentoo.blogspot.com/2007/05/ubuntu-is-superos.html

TechBookReport reviews the latest Ubuntu release. It talks about running the Live CD so the user can try out Ubuntu and look at the wide range of available applications. Once booted into Ubuntu, "you are presented with an uncluttered and rather elegant looking desktop." TechBookReport finds the installation easy and requires little technical knowledge and its easy to keep the system updated. Ubuntu doesn't try to overwhelm the user by installing too many applications by default. Overall, "Ubuntu feels rock solid, and the ease of use is impressive." Read more at http://www.techbookreport.com/tbr0296.html

Carla Schroder, editor of Linux Today, discusses how online discussions can be hurtful and destructive. People justify mistreating others by hiding behind free speech and ridiculing political correctness. Carla thinks the fact that Ubuntu enforces a code of conduct, has helped create a community "that supports courtesy and discourages rotten behavior, without needing jackbooted forum cops on duty all the time." Read more at http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-05-11-025-35-OP-CY

Ubuntu Development Team Meeting

Friday, May 18, 2007

Forum Council Meeting

Community Spotlight

MOTU: Masters of our Repositories

Masters of the Universe (MOTUs) are the brave souls who keep the Universe and Multiverse repositories of Ubuntu in shape. They are community members who spend their time adding, maintaining, and supporting as much as possible the software found in Universe. They keep Ubuntu equipped with the latest and greatest of applications. Like most teams in Ubuntu, they are always looking for new contributors, check out: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTUYou never know, you might fall in love with packaging.

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